Seeing Things Differently
by bigger infinities
Summary: All Lily was doing was staring at the fire. James would know, because he's been staring at her. What is Lily doing? James/Lily, T for cursing.


_Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of its characters/and or settings._

_This was done for _Bookaholic711's Project PULL. _For more info, please go and visit my profile. _

_This was beata'd by the lovely Bookaholic herself! Thank you, Soap!_

_**Word count:** 1,442 (Edited)  
**Prompt: **Blink  
**Pairing: **James/Lily  
**Summary: **All Lily was doing was staring at the fire. James would know, because he's been staring at her. What is Lily doing? James/Lily, T for cursing_

* * *

James Potter watched as Lily Evans sat on a plush armchair in the Gryffindor Common Room, staring into the fire. The glowing embers matched her hair almost perfectly, and he marveled at how alike Lily's hair was to the dancing flames. James suddenly shook his head, trying to clear it of distracting thoughts – especially ones about Lily's hair. Though most people wouldn't find Lily sitting and staring at the fire odd, since she had done it quite often of late, James had been watching Lily for a while now and realized she hadn't blinked for quite some time. At first he was content with watching the flames dance in her eyes, but it had become unnerving that she hadn't blinked, not even once, in the past fifteen minutes. He was still debating on whether or not he should go over and ask her if she was alright.

Just as he stood up though, she blinked, looking startled. She narrowed her eyes at the fire as if it had done something offensive and cursed under her breath. James was starting to worry for her mental heath, so he gathered up his courage and walked over.

"Hullo Evans," he said casually, watching her warily. Lily didn't respond, continuing to stare at the fire. She didn't move, didn't blink, and James was reminded of a statue – though he was certain no statue could compare to Lily's beauty. James stood there, watching her, occasionally calling out her name, but she did not move. He was starting to think there was something mentally wrong with her when she blinked again.

"Damn," she muttered, running a hand over her eyes. James raised an amused eyebrow, thinking of how Lily had vowed to never curse again after she almost got a detention for her foul language. He hadn't heard her curse since, and it was really very funny to see her curse so casually.

"Well?" Lily asked, peering up at him from where he was standing over the chair. He blinked, startled, realizing that she had been talking to him and that he'd completely spaced out for a moment.

"I'm sorry, what were you saying?" he asked, scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment. She watched him squirm with a cheerful expression, obviously amused now that she wasn't staring at the flames.

"I asked you," she started, with exaggerated slowness, "what you wanted. If it was just to stare and daydream about me, then I'd prefer you do it over there. Much less people will notice." She had picked up this odd sense of humor since they had been on better terms, and it never failed to impress James how bold she was now.

He chuckled lightly, running a hand through his already messy hair. Lily made a sound of displeasure at that, looking like she wanted to grab his hand to stop him from doing it. He knew she hated when he did that, but he just couldn't help it.

"Well," he said, finally regaining his composure, "I wanted to ask you if you were alright. You've been staring at that fire for quite a while now, Evans, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to do much of anything any time soon." She looked back at the fire sheepishly, as if embarrassed at being caught. Then her head snapped up and he caught a twinkle in her eyes.

"You were watching me, Potter?" she questioned, twirling a strand of hair in her fingers and looking up at him impishly.

James' cheeks tinted pink, and he fiddled with his glasses. "Well... er, that is to say – I'd accidentally noticed you weren't blinking and I, uh, wanted to know how long you could go...?" She looked ridiculously amused while he stuttered and sputtered his way through his very poor excuse.

"You were watching me, Potter," she teased, and the twinkle in her eyes got brighter, "but if you must know,I was actually trying to find out how long I could go. My record is twenty minutes, but I haven't been able to beat that since… well, a while." James nodded knowing that Lily was keeping something from him, but he decided it was best if he left it alone.

"Can I join you?" he asked, and she blinked up at him. She contemplated it for a second before she smiled again and said, "Sure."

James sat down, looking into the fire, almost afraid to look at Lily. He'd never gotten this nervous with anyone, but Lily did have that effect on him. "Here," she explained, turning his face towards hers. "Just stare at me for as long as you can, alright?" He complied, and after a few minutes, he realized that he could probably stare at her all day. His eyes drifted from her beautiful almond-shaped eyes to her smooth skin. Freckles were splattered over her nose, and he became very interested in counting them. After a bit of trying, and failing, to find how many freckles she had, her nose twitched in that adorable way of hers. James' mouth quirked up, and in response, so did Lily's. That led James to stare at her mouth, and he started leaning in without knowing what he was doing.

Lily jumped back, blinking, when she realized what he was doing. For a second, James scrambled for an excuse, but when he saw her blinking so rapidly, the words came tumbling out, "I win. You blinked."

Lily looked dumbfounded before she started laughing, loud and long. "That's cheating," she said, but she was smiling so widely that no amount of reprimanding words would be taken seriously. "Let's go again."

* * *

Sirius and Remus had been watching the whole occurrence with bated breath.

"What's the idiot doing?" Sirius asked after they had started staring at each other again.

"Dunno," Remus replied absentmindedly as he watched what they were doing. "Sirius, I think they're having a staring contest."

Sirius nodded in agreement, though he probably had no idea what the werewolf was talking about. After a few more minutes, Lily started to lean in just as James had before, and both boys thought that this was it, that they were finally going to kiss. At the last second though, James blinked and Lily pulled away laughing, while James turned a bright shade of red.

"We are never going to hear the end of this," Sirius muttered as he watched them laugh. "He's going to go on and on if he doesn't kiss that girl soon. Prongs needs to just kiss her already, instead of sitting there and staring at her like the total prat that he is."

Remus didn't reply, but watched as they went at it again, this time staring so fiercely it added an odd intensity to the whole thing. Remus checked his watch, deciding he might as well see how long they could go. Five minutes past, and still, they hadn't blinked. Ten minutes, and he could've sworn he had seen them inching closer to each other. Fifteen minutes and he'd been positive that they'd gotten closer, James' hand having found its way to Lily's. Twenty minutes, and Remus had almost been able see it in James' eyes as he decided then and there was he was going to do.

He leaned forward quickly, so she wouldn't have time to jump back, and captured her lips with his own. Remus smiled widely, glad to see James' dream finally coming true, even if she was about to pull away and reprimand him. Sirius whooped and many people sitting in the Common Room turned to them and just stared without restraint.

All who expected Lily to push James away and hex him were sorely disappointed as she wrapped her arms around his neck and practically melted into him.

When they finally broke apart, both were smiling widely. Everyone watched with rapt attention, waiting to see what would happen next. Would they kiss again? Would James ask her out again, in front of the whole Common Room?

They were all very confused when they realized that all they'd been doing for the past few minutes was staring at each other, small smiles on their faces, hands in each others.

They say James hadn't blinked since then, not wanting to miss a single second of anything Lily.

* * *

_A/N: Well, I hope you all enjoyed! Thanks once again to Bookaholic for looking this over, and for starting the wonderful challenge that is _Project PULL!

_~Icelyn_


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